squalid
Americanadjective
-
foul and repulsive, as from lack of care or cleanliness; neglected and filthy.
- Synonyms:
- unclean
-
wretched; miserable; degraded; sordid.
adjective
-
dirty and repulsive, esp as a result of neglect or poverty
-
sordid
Related Words
See dirty.
Other Word Forms
- squalidity noun
- squalidly adverb
- squalidness noun
Etymology
Origin of squalid
1585–95; < Latin squālidus dirty, equivalent to squāl ( ēre ) to be dirty, encrusted + -idus -id 4
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"It was an absolutely awful, squalid, very unhygienic scene," Norris remembers of his visit to Save A Paw.
From BBC
Tortora, meanwhile, languishes in squalid jail cells and a country with only a casual regard for habeas corpus.
Neat or squalid, these apartments reflect the compromised lives these men have made for themselves.
From Los Angeles Times
“I remember sitting in my squalid cubicle and thinking, ‘My God, my life is a total waste.
Soutine settled into a squalid artists’ colony in Montparnasse as one among many Jewish immigrants living there.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
